Local Radio (Hansard, 28 March 1985)

§ Mr. Brittan

The third report of the Home Office local radio working party, published in 1980, put forward proposals for the further development of local radio. In the light of comments on the report, my noble Friend the Viscount Whitelaw approved in principle in 1981 the provision of independent local radio services at a number of additional locations, bringing the total of possible locations up to 70. My noble Friend noted, however, that full implementation of the proposals would take a number of years, and that there might need to be a degree of flexibility about the most suitable and practicable way of bringing a service to a particular area in the light of developments in the economy generally.

The payment of secondary rental by profitably independent local radio stations has enabled the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to provide a service to 51 of the 70 locations, leaving 19 approved but unserved areas. Necessary modifications to the rental structure and financial pressures on the independent local radio system have, however, significantly constrained the funds available to the IBA for extension of the network. Moreover, in the light of broadcasting and other developments in recent years, the authority takes the view that few of the unserved areas would now attract an advertising income sufficient to sustain an independent local radio station. Against this background, and as a 281W means of bringing an independent local radio service to areas which would otherwise remain unserved, the IBA has proposed that:

(a) Services should in appropriate cases be provided by enlarging the catchment of neighbouring franchise areas. The extended area would be advertised as and when the contract for the relevant existing station is due to expire.
(a) The contractor for the new area should provide the means, by way of advance payment, to enable the IBA to install transmitting equipment and allied facilities for the extended area.

I accept the IBA view that unless some new approach is adopted, areas at present unserved are likely to remain so. I also agree that, provided that arrangements for forward funding can be developed between the IBA and the potential franchise holder, the extension of existing areas would help strengthen the viability of independent local radio as a whole. There is, of course, already some measure of association between radio stations in what were initially conceived as separate franchises. I also believe it necessary to canvas fully local opinion in the areas concerned. I have therefore approved in principle, subject to the results of this local consultation, the IBA's proposals to seek to extend over the next 12 months or so the Nottingham franchise to serve Derby; the Portsmouth franchise to serve Southampton; the Wolverhampton franchise to serve Shrewsbury-Telford; and the Reading franchise to serve Basingstoke-Andover. This will not preclude the setting up of separate ILR stations for the different localities in the future if circumstances permit.

So far as consultations are concerned, there is a statutory requirement on the IBA (section 19(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1981) to take such steps as appear to them appropriate to ascertain the opinions of the public in the relevant area about the service to be provided by the authority, and to take into account these opinions and any comments or suggestions about the service. The authority attaches particular importance to this process, and will take the opportunity to outline in more detail their intention to seek fresh investment and new directors from the new locality, and to require an appropriate measure of separate programming for different parts of the extended franchise area.

The revised arrangements however will not take effect if the consultation process shows them to be generally unacceptable locally. In such circumstances, the IBA would seek to re-let the existing franchise area only.